Soaking the dang myeon

Raw ingredients


Dekita! Finished!

I got the Korean cooking bug again yesterday. For some reason for the past few days I’ve had a hankering for Japchae.

Japchae, (also spelled jabchae or chapchae) is a Korean fried noodle dish. It’s a traditional festive food, and commonly served at birthdays. (Source)

The noodles used are potato starch noodles (dang myeon), and it is fried with slices of shiitake mushrooms, carrots, onions, beef, etc. The sauces used are - lots of soy sauce, sugar and lots of sesame oil. Normally it’s topped off with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Here’s my Japchae recipe:

Ingredients:

• Minced garlic
• Shredded carrot
• Spring onions, sliced thickly lengthwise
• Lots of sliced dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water so it’s reconstituted and soft.
• Sliced beef, marinated in sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine.
• Eggs, seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil.
• Toasted sesame seeds

• Soy sauce (lots)
• Sugar (couple of teaspoons)
• Sesame oil (lots)
• Fish sauce
• Pepper (lots)

• Dang myeon, soaked in water so it’s soft

Method:

1. Heat some oil up in a wok. Fry garlic till light brown and fragrant.
2. Fry beef till half cooked.
3. Add carrots, spring onions, mushrooms to wok. Fry for a bit longer.
4. Then add noodles.
5. Add sauces to taste.
6. Shove noodles and vegetables to one side of wok, add more oil.
7. Pour in beaten and marinated egg. Poke it around until suitably hardened.
8. Mix up egg and noodles.
9. Make sure it’s to taste, then serve hot garnished with some spring onions and LOTS of sesame seeds.

Notes (for n00b cooking, -stares at Ray-):

1. You can use any assortment of vegetables really. Other common vegetables to use are onion, capsicum, and beansprouts. But I dislike capsicum and I personally don’t think fried onion goes well with it. It’s a personal preference thing, and for me, spring onions, carrot and mushrooms are the best combination.
2. If you soak the dang myeon beforehand, it eliminates the need to actually boil the noodles before frying. That means washing one less pot! Just make sure you soak it for some time, maybe 30 minutes? I think it’s the best way to ensure the noodles remain al dente. I wasn’t sure so when I did it, I boiled the noodles anyway after soaking it. Recipes generally say boil noodles for 6 minutes, but I only boiled it for 2 minutesd before it was edible soft. And after all that time frying in the wok, the noodles became a bit too soft for my liking. Conclusion: soak, don’t boil. 30 minutes isn’t very long, just make sure it’s the first thing you do before you prepare the other ingredients. Disclaimer: Actually I haven’t tried that method yet. But theoretically it should work!
3. Make sure the egg is quite fully cooked before you mix it up with the noodles. If it’s still liquidity, it will just mix together with the noodles and you will never see the egg again >.< Oh, and if you're feeling creative, separate out the egg yolk and egg white and fry them separately before you fry the noodles. Shred them and use them as garnish on top of the noodles. Looks pretty, but personally too much work I think.
4. Don’t throw away the mushroom water…use it as part of stock for other dishes. It’s such a waste otherwise. I’m gonna use my mushroom for a steamed egg with dried scallops dish~~

Nevertheless, the noodles turned out yummy! And I have lots of leftovers to bring to Uni tomorrow~~
Jap chae can be eaten either hot or cold, so it makes a very good packed lunch.

I first tried out Krispy Kreme Donuts in Seoul. I can’t remember exactly who introduced it to me and Ray; I think it was Rob and Younjung. -thinks- Yeah it was them. Rob used to buy donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts but now he only eats KKD…well actually he tries not eat any at all because he said he was putting on weight XD

(Actually this is 8 months ago in July 2005 so things may have changed by now)

The first time we had KKD they were giving out the original ones for free…I think we got about 3 free donuts. Now I don’t like donuts normally because they are oily and dense and too starchy. Plus I don’t think they have much flavour. So the first time I encountered them I actually said I didn’t want any o.o

I think the first time we had KKD donuts is when we visited Imjingang.

The conclusion is that KKD is so good that it overcomes my natural aversion to donuts.

Plus KKD is pretty famous… the american donut-eating cop stereotype (Simpsons!) is but one example. I quite like its logo too. It’s very American retro.

Anyway, the reason for this post is…KKD is in Australia! When I first drafted this entry (in September 2005), KKD was only in Sydney Airport (Is there a KKD store near you? Use their handy store locater!). I checked it again this month and there are several stores all over Sydney now. Last week, a KKD store opened up in Melbourne city - on its opening day it gave away 10,000 free donuts o.o [UPDATE: after further KKD research, I found out that it was only a temporary KKD tent. The Melbourne KKD store is only going to open up...4 months later! In Fountain Gate!]

I’m going to Sydney next weekend (17-19 March), so I will be sure to check out the KKDs there! I think I will bring a box back to Adelaide too! Will they survive a 3 hour drive from Sydney to Canberra, then a 2 hour flight back to Adelaide? You decide!

Check out the layer of icing poured onto the donuts in the bottom right photo!

P.S. From ABC Australia News “Krispy Kreme comes to Australia” The World Today - Thursday, 19 June , 2003
JO MAZZOCCHI: What about the nutritional benefits of these Krispy Kreme doughnuts? Are there any nutritional benefits at all?

TIM GILL: Well if you check out the information which is provided by the company itself, it’s very hard to find any redeeming features nutritionally in the product. Basically the composition of the product is a bit of flour, a lot of sugar and a whole lot of fat.

Ueon Halmeoni Bossam Magnet

Bossam combo

Ueon Halmeoni Bossam
store entrance

I get the feeling I’ve mentioned this before, but oh well.

After Yeoido Church, Imjingang and our visit to Lotte-mart, we went to Ueon Halmeoni Bossam for dinner. Rob and Youngjung choose that place because they knew about my obsession with sesame leaves - serve the dishes there with sesame leaves/kaenyip XD

It’s a good thing I picked up the fridge magnet for the place, otherwise I would never have remembered what the name of the place was. I’m guessing “bossam” is the name of the dish and “halmeoni” is…either “mother” or “grandmother”. But since the drawing of the lady on the magnet looks so old, maybe it means “grandmother”? -checks website- Oh, I guessed right. It does mean grandmother.

Anyway, a bit of research on google is always useful. The Ueon Halmeoni Bossam chain of stores first started in 1984 (the year I was born in~~), and as at December 2004 (hmm, site needs to be updated) it has 190+ chain stores.

This is taken from their page on bossam:

• What is Bossam?

“Bossam” is the traditional food of Korea and also special
dish representing Korea served with Bossam-kimch and
high-quality of the pork boiled with special sauce.

• Origin of Bossam

Bossam was known to the public around 1945 Liberation of Korea,
and we can find the word “Bossam-kimchi” in the novel of the 1940’s.
Ancient noble family in Chosun Dynasty let the servants make and eat
a lot of kimchi in winter, and the origin can be found through the fact that
the noble family let the servants eat such Kimchi with boiled pork to appreciate
the servants’ efforts.

• How to eat

1. To place proper amount of Bossam-kimch and spices on the front table dish.
2. To put a sliced pork on Bossam kimch and spices.
3. To pick a sliced pork and Bossam kimch together on your table dish and to put them in the mouth, using chopsticks
4. To enjoy Bossam with salted shrimp and red pepper as personal taste.
5. As Bossam is matched well with the liquor, many Koreans would enjoy Bossam
with soju(white distilled liquor of korea)

When you order Bossam at Wonhalmoney-Bossam store, you can select kind if the pork as personal taste.
1. Lean meat only
2. Fat only
3. Mixed lean meat and fat

• Efficacy

Prevention of adult disease (arteriosclerosis, hypertension, etc)
As Bossam contains lots of unsaturated fatty acid such as arachidonic acid and linoleic acid, it prevents accumulation of cholesterol and lets the blood flow excellent.

Discharge of toxic substances piled in the body (hydrargyrum, lead and etc)
As melting point of the fat of Korean pork is lower than that of the body temperature, it pushes out the contaminants unexpectedly accumulated by polluted air and water and etc. from the body. Especially, it is good for prevention of pneumoconiosis in case any person breathes the dust much.

Good for skin care
Pork has vitamin-B group 5-10 times more than beef and also has high quality of protein and various nutritions, which makes the skin glossy.

• Nutrition

Good for growth of the children under growth period
Pork contains lots of phosphorus, potassium and etc., and also abundant mineral, which are good for children under growth period, student and examinees.

Protection of liver and good for anemia
As ferrum contained much in Korean pork has high absorbing rate, it prevents the anemia occurred from lack of ferrum, and as it has methionine more than anything else, Korean pork is good for protection of liver and for recovery of fatigue.

=========
Comments:

1. The romanization of Korean words is not very standard at all. So even though the Bossam site says its name is “Wonhalmoney-bossam”, I’m going to stick to the Lonely Planet romanization guide, which is the standard that everyone is meant to use, and continue referring to them as “Ueon halmeoni bossam”.
2. They should get people who can speak English fluently to translate their site :/ The English is so clunky and rather bad…surely such a big company can afford to meander down to the student exchange department of any university and grab a gaijin (hmm, what’s gaijin in Korean?) student to look over their translations. And because students are always poor and starving, they would be able to do an excellant job for much less than what a professional translator would charge. For the record, I’m putting up my hand for any of these sorts of jobs…I can do it at a very competitive rate!
3. I’m calling bullshit on what they claim are the health benefits of their Bossam. Surely you can’t eat fatty pork and and expect it to decrease your chances of arteriosclerosis?! “prevents accumulation of cholesterol and lets the blood flow excellent” ?!?! Yeah right!! Misleading and deceptive conduct…-mutter-.

=====

Anyway, the store we went to was in Sinchon, if I recall correctly. The entrance area is sunken in, and you have to take off your shoes before entering the raised main seating area. All the tables are low and you have to sit on the floor on little square vinyl-covered foam cushions. The store was very cute, and it felt very Korean.

We ended up ordering the Bossam Combo, and it includes boiled fatty pork hocks with assorted kimchi that we wrapped up in fresh green leaves. Unfortunately that day they didn’t have sesame leaf!! :@ :@

Oh well. It was still very nice. It’s surprising how tasty boiled pork can be o.o
Wish I took a photo of all the food >.<
When I go back to Seoul, I'll definitely eat this again >:D

Rating: 7/10 (points taken off for lack of sesame leaves)
Cost: 34,000 won for 4. Quite reasonable.
Ambience: 8/10. It certainly feels very “local”.

========

And this concludes my series of blog entries on Korea! I thought it was nice to finish it off on a food entry XD

I hope to go back to Korean soon T_T
Currently aiming for some time in March 2007. Offpeak season, plus I want to experience the Spring hanabi season in Japan…Sakura trees!

Seoul Station

Stewed silkworms, Lotte-mart, Seoul Station.

A really, really, big piece of seaweed.
Lotte-mart, Seoul Station.

After our trip to Imjingang on the 10th of July 2005, we dropped by at the Lotte-mart in Seoul Station. It’s a supermarket chain run by Lotte, the chaebol known overseas mostly for its confectionary. I’ve written on Lotte’s greatness in the past. I derive no end of amusement from chaebols; I don’t know why. I think it’s just that I think staying in a hotel run by a company I commonly associate with sweets makes me think of the witch’s gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel. And doesn’t anyone else have a problem with their money being managed by a sweet-maker? Okay okay I’m being absolutely biased here and I do understand the principals of the corporate veil, and how with a company as big as Lotte would mean that a salaryman in the financial department may never ever have to touch Lotte confectionary…but there you go. Shows you the power of first impressions.

Anyway, somehow after Imjingang we got to Seoul station. I can’t remember how we got there though o.o
It’s big, and it’s new, and it’s really cool. The inter-city trains come here, and it looks a bit like an airport on the inside. I remember being greatly amused by how the Lotteria fast food restaruant employed the same colour scheme as McDonalds, and how we were trying to withdraw cash from the Korean ATMs there (did Ray succeed? Can’t remember. This is why you need a credit card when travelling overseas :/).

Now, I always like going to supermarkets. Maybe it’s my obsession with food, but I really think checking out the local supermarket /wet market is one of the best ways of learning how the locals live. Do locals regularly visit the goongs/palaces? No. In fact Mokeun hadn’t been to Gyeongbokgung since he was …under 10? And Rob and Youngjung hadn’t been to Unhyeon-gung before. But everyone has to go to the supermarket reasonably regularly, right?

It would have been nice to check out the wet markets, but the supermarket is a good second place contender. I found Lotte-mart interesting. There was a wide variety of kimchee on sale (of course). I sampled quite a bit >:D

I bought the crispy seaweed I discovered in the Korean area of Tsim Sha Tsui as well as a packet of instant Naeng Myun for Jamie. I really love that crispy seaweed stuff. It’s made out of clumps of laver seaweed and is heavily seasoned with salt, sesame seeds and sesame oil. Some packets have more sugar than others, for some inexplicable reason. The packet I gave to Jamie was normal and salty (she finished it overnight xD), but the second packet was so sugary! To my great joy some asian grocery stores in Adelaide sell that seaweed. I’ve bought several packets, all of which had varying levels of sweetness. And they are all the same brand, and DEFINITELY are the same type. I mean, I didn’t see any difference in the product title that could indicate it was the “sweet” or “salty” version. And it doesn’t explain why some are so sweet and some are tolerable sweet. The only conclusion I can come up with is that they have terrible quality control at these seaweed factories. Oh yeah, and the Korean grocery stores in Boxhill, Melbourne sell that seaweed too.

I saw canned stewed silkworms at Lotte-mart too. Ugh. I’ve seen barbecued silkworms in Beijing, but the stewed silkworms bubbling away in the open pots in Imjingang definitely were worse. There’s this starchy smell that wafts off. And it just smells of boiled maggots. Ugh!!

Anyway, after our stopover at Lotte-mart, we took a taxi to Sinchon again and had a dish called Bossam Combo…

Imjingang lookout

Freedom Bridge/train line

Left:Relatively recent visit of George Bush,
with the ?Korean president
Right: Old man, born in the North,
fled to the South. He’s dressed in
traditional Korean summer wear.

Freedom Bridge barrier

Guard outpost

10th of July 2005, a Sunday.

We got up early to attend the church service at Yeoido Full Gospel Church. Then after that we met up with Rob and Youngjung in Sinchon for pudu chige.

We walked to a train station in an area around Sinchon/E-Hwa Women’s University. It’s not a subway/ metropolitan train station, but a station for inter-country trains. Actually it’s very old and small. I find it pretty quaint actually. It feels like you’re stepping back 50 years. The platform is pretty non existant; the oldness has a bit of the flavour of the old KL train station; but none of the old British grandeur. But it’s very cute and quaint.

It’s nothing like Seoul Station, which is big and new and looks like an airport.

We were going to have our first look at the Korean countryside! Destination: Imjingang, the northern-most town you can go to without having to apply for a special pass. Dorasan is the site of a military base and is further north; a special pass is needed. Perhaps pudu chige was invented in this area? I see now that pudu chige was a nice precursor to our trip…

Rob said that when he had to do his compulsory military service, he always left to go to camp from this little station. As such, I guess he still harbours some ill-feeling towards the little station and its route north.

The train fare wasn’t very much, less than 10,000 won I think. You can’t use your metro subway ticket.

It took a few hours, maybe more than two, not more than 3, to get up there. The countryside was quite nice; very green. It took quite a while to get out of Seoul city proper. I remember feeling rather cold in the air conditioning of the train. Fell asleep too.

Imjingang station was also very small. The platform was open and the nearby station building was old and quaint. I like this countryside stuff. Actually the vintages of both the station we left in Seoul and the Imjingang station seem similar. I think the reason why I like the station in Seoul is because it feels like a country station lost in the middle of the big, modern, bustling metropolis of Seoul.

We walked a bit into the town. There was a run-down outside display of some military vehicles used in the Korean war - I remember some fighter planes and possibly a helicopter and there had to be a jeep of some sort. But my memory is so hazy. Because it was out in the open, a lot of it was damaged. Well I think lots of people had climbed into them as well, resulting in possibly accidental vandalism (oxymoron?).

We moved along, and saw the “train to nowhere”. It was one of the original trains that used to run the length of Korea; from the South all the way to the North. A length of the original track that formed its route was there too. If I tried to anthromorphize the train, what sort of emotions would I put on the train? A proud train running the length of the beautiful countryside of Korea; rudely and roughly truncated in the midst of a bloody and cruel battle amongst countrymen; and now standing abandoned and dilapidated, its main purpose now to stand, disused, as a photo backdrop for tourists. But of course a train has no feelings.

We shuffled along, past a smallish amusement park. Somehow I felt it was a bit tacky. It feels a bit incongruent - a symbol of joy and amusement in a town that symbolises disunity and separation? But I guess that’s all in the past; no use dwelling and what you can’t change.

We got to the newly-contructed memorial building thing. It was a white building that wasn’t fully completed. There was a nice lookout over the Imjin River; however it was summer and the humidity didn’t result in the best visibility. The hills towards the north were shrouded in slight fog. If I recall correctly there were pay-per-view binoculars. It was a hot day, and it was sunny on the top level so after we had enough we descended into the coolness of the lower floors and made our way to the Freedom Bridge.

The Freedom Bridge (the smaller horizontal bridge) is so-called because it is where a lot of North Korean refugees and South Korean POWs crossed over during a prisoner exchange some years after the war.

The larger bridge that spans the river is the railway line that moves further North, to Dorasan. Where the Freedom Bridge meets the railway line is blocked off with a tall barbed-wire fence. There were lots of signs and bits of cloth tied to this barrier. Rob said the messages writen on the signs were all pro-peace messages in the vein of “let us have a united Korea”.

The nice bright green fields on the river bank are paddy fields, Rob said. Apparently it produces the highest quality, most expensive rice. There is very little pollution as this stretch is quite devoid of humans - only authorised people can farm that land. The nomansland, spanning a width of 4 Km (2 Km north and south of the border) practically guarantees the protection of the environment. Free of molestation, a rich variety of wildlife in the nomansland abounds. What disturbing things humans are…

A bitter border soaked in the bloodshed of decades past, a peaceful native wildlife sanctuary. An interesting contrast.

I wanted to go closer for a better photo of the guard outpost and the lovely green fields, then I read the sign on the right - “NO PHOTOS”. The guards looked alert and had really big guns. Being the sheltered and kiasu Singporean I am I didn’t dare go in closer for a better photo, but rest assured I’m now regretting it.

I remember a traditional Korean pavillion built on a little hillock on northern boundary. It looked nice.

There was also an altar of sorts in the area. Like the Chinese, some Koreans also have the Confucian practice of performing annual ancestral rites at the graves of their ancestors. The altar was built by petition of Koreans originating from the North who wanted somewhere to perform their ancestral rites in lieu of the actual grave sites which are impossible to get to.

We had a look at a small souvenir shop that sold little trinkets and bottles of soju that the shopkeeper said originated from the North.

Before heading back, we dropped by at a little convinience store in the new lookout building.

We made our way back to Imjingang train station. I couldn’t resist the cute coin-operated popcorn machine which had decals of fluffy sheep-shaped popcorn. Or was it popcorn-shaped sheep? It looked like popcorn with a sheep’s head, legs and tails sticking out. It was very cute. Should have taken a photo. The popcorn was decently buttery but I could have done with a bigger serving.

The airconditioning on the train was cold. I fell asleep on the way back.

==============
UPDATE: train tickets to Imjingang were 1,200 won per person. Just so you know.

Korea_019
Originally uploaded by +fatman+.

Korea Food
Originally uploaded by unkong.

Haemul tang
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

A new Korean restaurant opened up right in the middle of Adelaide’s Chinatown, on Moonta Street.

No photos of my own as I forgot to bring my camera :/
But the blog looked a bit too plain otherwise, so here are some Korea food-related photos I grabbed off flickr ^^.

I thought it looked rather promising seeing as it had a traditional-looking front, with Korean-style gates and a Korean-looking roof. A peek inside revealed lots of those clayware pots and stuff. Seemed authentic enough. Finally, an authentic Korean restuarant in Adelaide! Although I heard there’s another one around somewhere out of the city…

Opening night was tonight (7th Feb). The menu list wasn’t very long, only about 5 stewed items. They said the proper full menu hadn’t come out yet. So to apologise, all menu items were 50% off, even drinks o.o

We had a beef backbone soup/stew and a seafood soup/stew. The food comes in shallow pots and they are put on portable gas burners to cook a bit more. It’s all well and good for the customers, but those gas burners get used up pretty quickly! I think they should have gone for a more permanent option, with gas piped into gas stoves that are built into the table tops. On the other hand, if these stew thingos on the menu today only comprise a small part of a more varied menu, then I guess having stewed dishes won’t be so common, and they won’t go through gas canisters so quickly.

I was very surprised to see fresh kaenyip in the beef backbone stew!! I had to ask a few times where it came from; they must have been very busy or something, the waitresses never got back to me >.>

The service staff were friendly and helpful, but I think they were a bit forgetful/hurried. Actually today is their training night too, so I didn’t mind much - I got what I wanted in the end. Also, we tried paying by credit card at the end but actually their machine wasn’t set up. They apologised for not telling us earlier, and said the dinner would be free! But we didn’t feel nice about it so we told them to give us a call to pay once their machine was set up, which they accepted only after much persuasion.

Anyway, turns out that they order the kaenyip from Sydney everyday 2 weeks or so. They also said that if I wanted any, I could put in an order with them O_O!! So nice!

The beef bones were stewed together with some potatoes (undercooked, duly reported) in a slightly peppery broth with some other vegetables like carrot/onion. Not too bad, not the particularly earth-shattering though.

The seafood soup was okay too. There was a flower crab, some octopus and some prawns. No fish, surprisingly. They added in a couple of tablespoons of fresh garlic and red pepper to the soup stock. It was nice and pungent XD

I wouldn’t have ordered seafood soup because crabs are always a pain to eat “>_>
But it wasn’t too bad.

Basically, none of these dishes are what I would choose normally, so I wasn’t expecting much. I do hope they have naeng myun or chijimi though >.< Or maybe proper gimbap!

Oh, the sidedishes/kimchi stuff was okay. I don't expect it to be as generous as in Korea of course, but it would be nice if there was just a little bit more! There was new kimchi (huh, don't know what you actually call it, because the cabbage wasn't even fermented yet, seems like they just marinated it today), but no proper cabbage kimchi. I guess in a few weeks they'll get their kitchen in order.

I ordered ?mullju, the Korean traditional cloudy rice wine (hey, everything 50% after all!). It wasn’t as nice as in Seoul. It tasted as though they used artificial sugar or something to sweeten it. I can’t bear aritficial sweeteners. It also seemed much stronger >.> Anyway, it was $15 for a larg-ish pot (maybe a litre?) so it’s still rather generous I think. My family of 3 couldn’t finish it, and it felt like a bit of a waste to leave it behind (because of alcohol regulations or something). It would have been nice to let my boss try some of it >:D

Yeah. So because I’m Chinese and hate to leave stuff behind, I tried to drink as much as possible. My mother only had a cup or two and she was red. My brother had about a cup and he wa pinkish. Apparently I was red. I’m not disputing that. Though I constantly denied it at the time, on further reflection, I guess I was pretty drunk. I downed quite a number of cups in quick succession. I skolled it because I didn’t want to taste it >.>

Anyway, I think I didn’t really notice it but I ate/drank a lot. And when I came home I felt queasy. I just wanted to lie down, but I had to take a shower first…Burping wasn’t good enough (or maybe it triggered a chain reaction) so in the end I threw up. A couple of times. >.<

Wow, this food review doesn't seem very appetising at all does it?

Rating
10 being best, 1 worst. I’m rating on what I experienced today, not what I think is their potential once they get their act together, so the scores will be lower than normal.

Service: 6.5/10
(points taken off for forgetfullness)

Food: 6/10
It’s a new thing, and varied, and that’s what stops me from saying it’s mediocre. Also, there was kaenyip! But overrall the taste is not that special, and I wouldn’t order those particular dishes again - that is just because of my personal preferences though. I’m eagerly awaiting the full menu. Also, the serving sizes were rather good.

Value for money: 10/10
Well, this score is abnormally high because of the opening rates >:D
If they don’t call us back, we may never pay!
But anyway, I think even without the 50% discount, it’s not too bad.
The 2 medium-size soups that we got was good enough for all three of us.

The beef back bone is $20 normally, seafood $28. Mullju $15. Total $63, after discount $31.50, after no credit cardit facilities, $0 XD

Conclusion
Overall, it’s not too bad, I’d go back again. There is alot of potential I think. They will open for lunch next week too! So I think I will wait till the full menu comes out before going back again.

Traditional Korean Restaurant

Pudu Chige

UPDATE: I added in a line detailing how much pudu chige will cost you. Because I am a price nerd and I love remembering how much stuff cost me…

Boy, has it been a long time since I’ve blogged about Seoul! The memories are really fading, which is why I’m really worried about how much detail I can provide about China when I finally get around to blogging about that >__<

Anyway, one of the highlights of the trip is the Korean food! I was pleased that I was *never* left hungry after a meal. They are always so generous with kimchi and there is always food left behind, which I think is a great waste. Coming from a family that doesn't even leave one grain of rice behind, it really breaks my heart, all that kimchi going to waste. We'd have easily thrown away A$100+ of kimchi (if you had to buy that same amount in Australia).

I already blogged heaps about the Korean BBQ, etc, so these 2 photos are the only ones left.

Pudu chige is also known as "army-base" stew. It's so-called because it was developed near the american army bases. It contains sliced luncheon meat and sausages as well as CHEESE (Kraft singles) in a hot red pepper broth. These items, obviously not being traditional Korean foods, were at first only available near the American bases.

It is relatively modern style fusion Korean food. But it is surprisingly nice and tasty. After boiling, the cheese isn't obvious in the stew, and dissolves into the liquid to form a nice creamy flavour.

This restaurant is in Sinchon, a very 'student' area (3 univerisities are in close proximity). And because it's a student area, the food is relatively cheap - 19,000 won for 4 people.

In other news, when I was in Melbourne I made sure to check out every Japanese/Korean grocery store I came across. There were lots, and the variety was very good. I actually found chige claypots (and they were relatively cheap too) but I didn't buy them because I didn't want to lug them around >_<

Hmm, I need to make some Korean friends here in Australia who can show me exactly how to make a chige :/

Oh and Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!~

Flash subway map

Anguk - Subway signs

Train arrival

Subway interior

T-money

The Korean subway system is really quite complicated. Well to be exact, the routes are very complicated. Just look at the route map, the lines snake everywhere! It is not uncommon to have to change lines 3+ times to get to your destination. It makes it a bit impossible to doze off on the Seoul subway. Well, unless you want to miss your stop I guess. One has to be reeeeaally alert on the subway. Well, at least the subway goes pretty much *everywhere*.

Sometimes the station layout may seem a bit complicated too; even Mokeun got a bit confused at one stage :> (remember that time we accidentally exited the station and had to pay twice to get back in? XD)

YeonJung mentioned one time that one of the reasons why the routes were so complicated is because certain powerful people wanted the subway lines to come close to their properties, even at the expense of having a kinked route, so that the value of the properties would increase. Tsk! Power certainly corrupts.

The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is one of the most heavily used subway systems in the world, with over 8 million trips daily on the system’s nine lines. The system serves Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, with a connection to the Incheon subway system. Current total length of the subway system is about 287 km (not including Korea National Rail lines).

The metropolitan subway system began operation in 1974, with more lines added in the late 1970s and 1980s. More lines are still being added and extended today.

A station typically has a few platforms on different levels. But unlike Hong Kong’s MTR, THERE ARE NO ESCALATORS. Walking up 2 flights of stairs when you’re dead tired carrying luggage is no joke. It can also take up to 10 minutes to walk to a different platform, particularly when you’re changing lines at a station that services more than 2 lines.

I guess the reason why there are no escalators is because these stations were built so long ago. HK’s MTR system definitely looks newer and shinier. Hmm, perhaps the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation should think about a bit of renovation. The stations, though clean, do look a bit dated, very 80’s.

Ticket prices start at 900 won for a trip up to 12 km, with 100 won added for each 6 km after that. People may use a debit card called T-Money (similar to Hong Kong’s Octopus or Singapore’s EzyLink) to pay for fares. I love these tap debit cards! I’ve blogged about them before (scroll down to last paragraph in that post for relevant commentary).

As alot of credit cards in Korea also have the same chip used in T-money, many Koreans simply used their credit cards instead. Ahhh so useful~~

I heard that Melbourne was actually going to have these cards too! It’s going to be rolled out in 2007 though, as they have to wait for the present ticketing contract to expire *_*. Oh well, by the time I move there after I graduate, it should be in place.

I look forward to going to “chat zhai”* in Melbourne to buy Calbee Okonomiyaki-flavoured potato chips, finding I don’t have enough change, and using my new Victorian Smartcard to pay instead. (whoah, mega segue there!)

——–
References
Seoul Metropolitan Subway [wiki]

* 七仔, Hongkie slang for 7-eleven, lit. “seven kid”. Incidentally, did you know 40% of today’s 7-eleven stores are in Japan, and that a Japanese-based company bought a majority interest in the Texas-based company in 1991? Makes sense, really.

09/07/05 - BBQ #1

11/07/05 - BBQ #2

12/07/05 - BBQ #3

BBQ #3 - different cuts of meat

Kkaetyip

Well, of course being in Korea, we HAD to have the famous Korean BBQ!

We had it twice in Hong Kong, but it was always on the expensive side (HKD$100+), and the amount of salad provided was not free flowing. As I’ve mentioned before, kkaetyip (but the shopkeepers didn’t understand me when I said that. But saying “kaenyip” works) is the best tasting leaf out there! When I heard I could have as much of it as I wanted in Korea, I was so happy. Game plan: ignore the boring lettuce, just chow down on the kaenyip!

So, during our 7 days in Seoul, we went for Korean BBQ three times! I still didn’t think it was enough though :Unhyeongung. This place was a short walk away from our Anguk lodgings, not more than a 15 minute walk away from the main Insadon street. It’s near Jogno-Sam Ga station, in Jogno.

Normally two sauce are provided, one is a dwaenjjang (fermented bean paste)-based sauce. It’s not bad. But the other sauce is incredible, especially considering how simple it is to make. Yes, it’s that sesame oil sauce I’m so fond of! 4 parts sesame oil, 1 part salt and LOTS of ground white pepper too! Arrggh how can something so simple be so good! Now whenever I go for Korean BBQ in Adelaide, I ask for it. The manager (actually he’d from Hong Kong) always thinks I’m weird, but oh well XD.

For meat, we had 3-layered pork: a thick layer of fat, meat, and then fat again. So tasty. But oh so unhealthy…

The store was rather large, and the dining area was just one big square. When you go in, there are lots of little round tables set up with grillplates in the middle. Actually there is not much table space. If I remember correctly, they used actual charcoal here, but it was also gas-fired. What a good idea! Not only do you have the charcoal flavour, but you also avoid the long waiting times needed for the charcoal to start burning!

It was already pretty busy when we went there, and with all the sizzling going on, our clothes really stunk after that. We were pretty much the only customers actually eating rice and not drinking beer.

It ended up being 7,000 won per person. A bit more expensive than your average cheapo meal in Seoul, but hey, it’s meat! Unfortunately, the store that day had already run out of kaenyip! I was bitterly disappointed, so I had to have BBQ again!

Barbeque #2 was the best we had. This place was a bit of a dive in one of the narrow alleys off the end of the main Myeondong shopping street. That’s the end that’s across the main road from the Lotte department store buildings. We met Rob after his work and had dinner in this place after a day of random window shopping.

The store had only 3 tables on the first level, but I think there was a seating area on the second floor too. Because it wasn’t busy at all, the managress came out to cook a bit for us! I remember (I think) a bunch of Japanese tourists came in. Seemed to be a tour group, anyway they all tramped up to the second floor. After awhile, some other Japanese women came in too, but they were on their own an sat down at the table next to us. The Korean manager guy came out and talked to them in Japanese. Hmm, his Japanese was pretty good! Linguistical skills are so important!

Our meal came with some enoki mushrooms. I don’t know if they charged us extra for that, but it was very yummy. Upon being told by Rob that we were foreigners, the manageress quite amusingly taught us how to eat Korean BBQ with all the sauces. She seemed pretty nice. Piping hot barbequed enoki mushrooms go soooooooo nicely with that sesame oil sauce -droooooool-

This time round, we had beef ribs and beef neck, if I remember correctly. These cuts were more expensive, but it was definitely worth it! The beef neck was the more expensive cut and boy was it good. So tender, so tasty~~~

Conclusion: there was kaenyip , there was the sesame seed oil sauce. I was so happy.

Dinner was 9,000 won per person, although Rob said it was an expensive area and that it would have been cheaper around Sinchon >_

Dear Evangeline,

I regret to inform you that your application for the Australia-Korea Internship Program for 2005-6 has been unsuccessful. We received anoverwhelming response to the internship program, and due to the qualityof applicants, we were not able to find a place for you this year.Subject to the continued success of this program there may be a thirdprogram next year, and I would encourage you to consider re-applying forthat.
To keep in contact with RIAP’s events, please sign up for furtherupdates at www.riap.usyd.edu.au/ypp.

=================

I feel like a hole has opened up.

Unhyongung - Youngjung,
Rob, Ray

Unhyongung - Guesthouse

Unhyongung -
Guesthouse exterior

Unhyongung - Official Tree

Unhyeongung - Performance

On the 9th of July, we moved lodgings to Anguk Guesthouse in the Insadon/Anguk district. After checking in, we said good goodbye to Mokeun, who had to go back to his home town ;_;

After that, Rob and his girlfriend Youngjung took us to the nearby Unhyeon Palace (or Unhyeongung)

Gung means palace, as in Gyeongbokgung, Gyeongbok Palace. This is similar to the pronounciation for ‘palace’ in Mandarin too (’gong’). It’s actually quite small, about the size of a rather large mansion. I like this palace. It was actually bustling with activity. There were dance troupes practicing in the halls, and some women doing traditional Korean craftwork. There was also a lot of work going on in preparation for the concert later that evening.

Contrast that to the dead musty halls of the Forbidden City. An empty palace feels sad; it illustrates the fact that every age will pass away, even something as powerful as the Chinese emperors once were (watch out CCP!).

Anyway, this palace was for the king’s father, a very powerful former royal regent of the second last king, I think. At any rate, I’m pretty sure he was the father in law of Queen Min who was assasinated by the Japanese. He was her political enemy (he sides with the Japanese, Min with the Chinese), so he probably wanted this meddling woman put away. Jeez, royal politics. I don’t think it was a good idea siding with the Japanese.

-Mentally points to Japanese repeated destruction, of Korean palaces and culture. Also, don’t forget the Japanese ocupation (awww…who *wasn’t* occupied by the Japanese in WWII…)-

He practically invited them into the country! Well siding with the Chinese probably wouldn’t have been too good either. Oh well. It’s a problem when you’re a weak country…

Hmm, I get the impression he was a bit power-hungry, and possibly corrupt too. Well, when you’ve been the regent and basically control the whole country…I guess the power goes to your head. I guess even after handing over the reigns to the rightful king after he comes of age, and then having a meddlesome queen…he just couldn’t help himself? Maybe I’m totally defaming him XD
-too lazy to actually go and look up the historical accounts-

Side note: The Japanese were horrible and cruel in World War II. Lots of old people still hate the Japanese. Yet the young people are completely entranced by Japanese culture (ahahahah…..
-sheepish-). I don’t know what it is about them, if their culture wasn’t so mysteriously attractive I’d probably still dislike the Japanese ‘just because’. Yes, the Japanese we know now aren’t the same as the ones back then, but it happened before, and history has a tendency to repeat itself. Especially if the current generation don’t know what really happened.

SO, my point is, enough with the dodgy Japanese history textbooks! Enough with visiting Yasukuni Shrine. Yeah it doesn’t *do* anything, just visiting it, but there is an implication that the government still hasn’t faced up to its past. Apologise, correct the textbooks, and face up to it. Nobody’s perfect, we don’t expect you to be too. A loss of face is only temporary. Just get over it already.

Anyway, there was a cute little guesthouse. It is in a house detached from the main compound. Apparently only the most favoured got to stay here.

Rob’s sitting on the porch just outside the guesthouse. I imagine it’s in the same posture and style as many a visiting official would have sat, perhaps relaxing while on official business. Ghost from the past!

One hot day, the regent sat here under the tree. The regent loved the shade the tree gave so much he bestowed official status to the 3rd level (if I recall correctly). So it is an official tree. Not as in it is officially a tree, which would have been lame, but it is a tree with official status. Practically a yangban huh?

Well, I have nothing to say. But it is a very nice tree.

Again, we seemed to have very good timing. The event that evening is actually only an annual one! There was alot of traditional Korean dances, a storyteller, musical performances and traditional singing. The most entertaining part seemed to be the storytelling, pity it was in Korean. I wanted to pick up some information about the event, but all the English pamphlets were gone by the time I looked. Which is odd because I didn’t see any obviously English speakers there. I bet some of those Koreans picked up the English one by accident and then just chucked it out :@ :@

Well, there was one billingual information sheet about Unhyeongung in general, but the English was rather dodgy. Rob commented that the Korean was very good though XD

The dances got a big boring after awhile, so we left halfway through. Swish here and there, repeat ad nauseum. See, the dancers weren’t even very pretty, they were matron-shaped cakes of make-up…They really need to train up some young girls =_=.

But a really stand-out performance was the, literally, “3 things playing” (I think). It’s called sanmul…something. It’s an odd name, as there were more than 3 instruments playing. Even if you’re only counting the front row drums. It’s mainly an EXTREMELY energetic drum performance. Women can’t play it because it requires too much muscle, apprently. But they can join in with the string instrument accompaniments in the second row. I suppose the occasional melodies in between furious drumming gives the drummers a chance to rest a bit. The guy with the cymbal (just to the left of the pole) was awesome.

Imjingang train station -
Soap onna stick

Inchon Airport -
Women’s toilet in main
departures area

I’ve had assignments coming out of my ears these past couple of days (gaaaaarrr auditing sucks!! I never want to be an auditor!! >___<.

So here's just a quick post.

Toilets are very important, and can really make or break a stay in a foreign country, particularly when you're female. I guess guys just use the toilets and run away. Consider: the toilets in Beijing are terrible, so you walk around all day with a bursting bladder, only willing to go to a toilet in a decent place (ie only hotels). Well, you're not going to really enjoy your stay. It's either a bursting bladder or walk around extremely thirsty as you try to ration yourself so you don't have to go to the toilet so often XD. At least while we were in China it was summer and terribly hot. I cut down on water, so I think all my consumed water came out in my sweat, hardly had to go to the toilet, no bad toilet experiences (except for the train >_<)

Okay, on with the observations. First toilet observation: You know how it's disgusting using bar soap at public toilets because normally it's all water-logged and mushy? Well I guess soap-onnna-stick (TM) would solve this (the soap is the blue thing). I've seen this at a few toilets, so it's not just one weird toilet. I didn't use it though. I have a prejudice against bar soap. You don't know who else has touched that soap >_<.

Second toilet observation: Some Korean toilets are so cool. I’m guessing they just imported the weird toilet technology from Japan. The first guesthouse we stayed in in Seoul had a really complicated toilet, but hmm, they actually switched the advanced electronics all off, so you still had to just flush normally. Bit of a pity, really.

Anyway, here’s the toilet in the departure/arrivals terminal in Inchon International Airport. It’s not high-level oh-I-can’t-even-figure-out-how-to-flush-this-#%^$#%^$@%-thing complicated, but it did have some nice touches catered to public toilet usage.

The first feature is the automatic seat protector. You press a button, and the plastic sheet covering on the toilet seat changes. It slides from left to right, ensuring that you have a nice, clean, hygenic visit.

I actually I studied the instructions on the wall carefully before pressing anything. You don’t want anything untoward happening in a locked toilet cubicle XD

There is also an etiquette bell that emits an extremely LOUD flushing sound, thus masking any unpleasant noises you may make while going about your business. I don’t think I would care what random strangers in the toilet may think of the sounds I may make, but hey, a service is a service.

Eh, this entry ended up being decently long…

Anguk Guesthouse

Anguk Guesthouse - detail

Insadon - traditional house

Insadon - courtyard interior

Insadon street

On 17 July, which was a Sunday, we moved our lodging from some hostel to a nice guesthouse in a traditional Korean house near Insadon. Insadon is the traditional, cultural part of Seoul, there are alot of shops selling Korean souvenirs, like paintings, tea ware, etc etc. The main shopping street is surrounded with traditional-style Korean buildings. Alot seem to be restaurants and some are private dwellings. I passed by a tea school as well.

It’s a lovely area, I really wish I had more time to walk around it slowly. Really wish I had the time to take more photographs of the place. In fact, I always think that. This year whenever I travelled, I always had this feeling that we were rushing around to see everything we could. But I guess that is unavoidable, it would be a waste not to see everything we could have. It just means I’LL BE BACK to take a more leisurely stroll this time :>

The place we stayed at is called “Anguk Guesthouse”. This place was one of the sets for a very popular Korean drama on TV. One of the characters supposedly “lived” here. It is a very nice house, it feels very warm. I like how there’s so much wood. I also like how these traditional houses always have a courtyard in the middle. Gives everyone some breathing space, I suppose. But boy does it echo alot. All that hollow wood really should be filled up with padding so you don’t hear everyone’s footsteps. And paper doors aren’t very good at stopping sound transmission >.>

I remember the drunk American British girls coming back at 5am and talking (no screaming excitedly) on the phone.

The rates were pretty reasonable too, I thought. It came down to about 25,000 won per person per night. But there was a private bathroom and a computer with internet broadband connection in each room. There is also breakfast (cook your own) and the fridge is well-stocked. It’s basically like a normal house, with a kitchen that you can use whenever. The fridge was packed with milk, juices, sausages, bacon and so on. And there was bread and fresh fruit too. The owner said that instead of paying exorbitant credit card fees, he preferred to spend the money ono providing more fruit and food. Yes, only cash is accepted.

We had to hoard our money, just in case we ran out of cash XD. I just left what I had to pay locked up and stashed in my luggage in the inn, in case I accidentally spent the money…

I had the same feeling I had in Beijing, I wish I had more cash with me…

Thank goodness I had my “credit card” though.

At the end of the trip, I did get hit with alot of credit card international exchange fees though >_<

]]> http://evanelam.photo-log.com/2005/10/30/insadon/feed/ http://evanelam.photo-log.com/2005/10/24/nore-bangs-and-hofs/ http://evanelam.photo-log.com/2005/10/24/nore-bangs-and-hofs/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2005 08:07:00 +0000 evane http://evanelam.photo-log.com/?p=113
Traditional Korean Drinking
Hole

After Soundday, we met up with Mokeun’s friends from his cafe. It was actually the going-away party for one of the guys. He was supposed to fly to Japan the next day for some sort of language course, for a few months.

We met them at a nore bang (I’ve blogged about this before, which is a good thing because I had forgotten alot of details!). It was pretty interesting, it was the more traditional type, I suppose, since you had to sit on the floor and take off your shoes (but most karaoke places are not like this). The singing was really loud and the echo was …. must have been set to max!

After that, they decided to go to a traditional Korean type drinking hole/pub (hof). They managed to persuade the guy who was leaving to come along, even though he had an early morning flight the next day XD

The hof was designed in a very rustic style, with paper walls and mud clay walls. The seating areas were raised off the floor on platforms and covered with straw rope mats. You had to take off you shoes to get to the seating areas. We sat on thin cushions at low tables.

The Korean cloudy rice wine is really interesting and quite drinkable. It’s pretty sweet. It was served in a large clay pot, and then it was served out into individual earthenware cups with a gourd ladle. But what I really liked about it was the food that came along with it XD

They had large strips of ‘new’ kimchi (only seasoned for a few days, not really fermented yet) you actually had to cut into bits yourself with scissors. There were alse leaves of chinese cabbage that you could dip into a spicy dwaenjjang paste, a simple clam soup, and they also ordered a kimchi pancake. The kimchi pancake was great!! I need to eat more of that!

It was still rather drizzly when we left. We took a cab back home and slept, we were so tired, and we were going to move lodgings the next day.

E-hwa women’s uni

Sound day

We walked to E-wha Women’s University after Yonsei and Mokeun’s cafe. The two universities are in the same area. And it is in the same style as well, very English!

We met up with Irene and her boyfriend and ate at a cafe there. We had a pasta set meal. It was our first Western meal in Korea, I think. So it felt a bit weird. But the taste was not too bad.

She took a photo of us in front of the chapel, one of the distinctive buildings there. They are doing major construction work there now. It’s a bit of an eyesore at the moment though XD. But anyway, the background will be totally different in a few years! Then we’ll come back to Korea and take another photo to compare XD

Our week in Korea was quite well-timed. We seemed to be on time for alot of little things here and there (the co-ax mall photo thing, soundday, and the unhyeongung performance). Maybe because it was summer, and there was a festival season of sorts.

After that, all of us walked a bit more, and went to “Evans”, a pub/club for the first leg of the Soundday monthly music festival thingy. Entrance fees cost 15,000 won, and you get one free drink too. It allows you access to nine clubs and 40 acts!

Soundday was a promotional thing for local music I reckon. You could pick what genre you wanted to listen to, then trundle along to the pub it was held in.

We saw Trio (jazz act), Freaky (rock), some pop/funk band, and had a duck into a some hip-hop club that was near to Evans. My greatest regret is not staying to watch beautifuldays! >__< .

]]> http://evanelam.photo-log.com/2005/10/14/e-wha-womens-university-and-soundday/feed/ http://evanelam.photo-log.com/2005/10/13/yonsei-university-and-my-sassy-girl/ http://evanelam.photo-log.com/2005/10/13/yonsei-university-and-my-sassy-girl/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2005 10:39:00 +0000 evane http://evanelam.photo-log.com/?p=107
Yonsei Uni - main gate

Korean “Last Supper”

The Crucification -
Korean style

Yonsei - Entrance to
arts/politics
Social Sciences faculty

My Sassy Girl - shoe scene

Yonsei - My Sassy girl -
Shoe scene

On the 8th of July, which was a Friday, Mokeun took us to Yonsei University. Well, actually I can’t really remember. If we went to Soundday on the same day as the day we went to Yonsei, then it was the 8th.

-Checks notebook- Ooo. Yes, it was the same day.

Mokeun did some work as a Yonsei tour guide for new students, so we definitely had a very well-informed personal tour guide!

We dropped by at the main chapel there. Students are *required* to attend chapel a certain number of times per semester. Actually, I remember Irene saying that it was required at E-wha Women’s University. So maybe it is not compulsory at Yonsei, but at E-wha.

The chapel had some artwork depicting Chrisitan scenes as though they all took place in Korea 200 years ago. It was fascinating.

Yonsei University is a very beautiful university. It’s a very well-known private university that was set up by ?British/American Christian missionaries at least a century ago. It’s set on very large grounds. When you get to the central administration area (the oldest bit) it almost looks like you’re in England! There is a traditional garden sort of thing in front, and the buildings are old and very English-style, I suppose.

He also showed us the standard video they show to international exchange students (I think).

After that, we walked past Mokeun’s arts/politics Social Sciences faculty building. If you have watched the Korean movie ‘My Sassy Girl’, you may recognise the entrance - it was used as the entrance to Gyong-Woo’s engineering faculty.

Remember the swapping shoe scene in My Sassy Girl? It was done on this exact chair! You can see the politics building in the background. The site is also at the front of the business faculty (Rob’s faculty) too.

…Okay, I got a screen capture of the movie, so you can compare the two photos. On closer inspection, the photos probably weren’t taken on the exact same bench (see the trees), and it seems like Yonsei has replaced the chairs recently. Anyway, The building is the same one in the background, just maybe at a slightly different location as it seems closer to the bench in the original photo…well there was another bench nearby, so it could have been that one…

We also saw some students practicing on their traditional Korean drums, and had a look at the huge open-air auditorium where they broadcasted the World Cup Soccer a few years ago. It was during exam time for Korean university students. Soccer is a very popular sport in Korea. So it was no surprise that alot of Yonsei students failed that year!

We also walked to a cafe that Mokeun used to work at. It’s extremely cosy and seems like a really cool place to hangout.

Downtown Seoul

Myeong-dong

The first photo was taken near the exact centre of Seoul, which means it’s also pretty much in the centre of Korea, too. It’s right opposite that statue of the famous sea general that defeated a large Japanese naval force while seriously outnumbered (anyone watched the Korean drama ‘Emperor of the Sea’?). His statue is seen ?standing on a large turtle. The turtle is there because he came up with the “turtle ships” concept, what we’d call armoured ships today. He laid metal sheets all over his boats so that cannon balls would just bounce off and fall back into the sea. He went so far to decrease the vulnerability of his ships that he decreased the holes in the hull around his cannons. This meant that the cannons couldn’t be moved independently to be aimed; the whole ship actually had to be turned too. Bit unfortunate, but it seemed like it was worth it.

He absolutely routed Tokugawa Ieyasu’s force.

After that, Korean court intrigue somehow demoted him. The next commander was quite an idiot, and they realised they had to call him in again. He won again.

He finally died in battle. He knew he was mortally wounded by a ?stray ?arrow/gunshot yet told his aides to prop him up so his men would think he was still alive and wouldn’t lose heart. A true hero.

===
That first photo was taken after our visit to Gyeongbukgong. We were on our way to one of the biggest bookshops in Seoul (it was sort on in the basement of a huge building). After that, we had yummy grilled fish and chige (of course) for dinner. And then we went to Myeong-dong (where the second photo was taken). Well, I think we went to Myeong-dong after that. It’s a bit hazy right now.

But after Myeong-dong, we definitely took a taxi up a went on a cable car up Namsan.

Oh, I just checked my Visa statement. Yes, we did go to Myeong-dong after dinner. And for the record, dinner cost us 21,000 won for 3 people. And the cable car ride cost 6,300 won per adult.

Namsan is quite a scenic place. There is a tall tower there which you can also pay to go up and see an even better view of Seoul, but then it was closed that day. We walked around a bit, and then went back down. No taxis were in sight (it was a bit late by then) so we had to walk back all the way to Myeong-dong subway station, then back to Hyehwon station…and to our guesthouse and bed. I was seriously falling asleep in the subway at that stage. All that walking around in the sun in Gyeongbokgung was quite tiring I suppose. And we woke up pretty early.

Myeondong - some chic
homewares giftshop with
Haagen Daaz in the basement

I remember the day I took this photo was on our last full day in Seoul. We woke up reasonably early and had a walk around Insadon, then took a subway to Dongdaemun, which had NOTHING OPEN to our disappointment. It’s meant to be the best cheap shopping area. But, we found out later that it only open at night, like 11pm-6am. Crazy shopping hours! Rob said that apparently, it’s because the area sells wholesale clothes, and night time is the only time retail clothing store owners can come and stock up. So somehow a huge retail industry has grown around that area, and even though most of the customers to the new shops are normal individual customers not buying wholesale, the late-night hours seem to have stuck.

I didn’t realise that Dongdaemun opened so late; I should have gone there earlier on in our trip~~ Oh well.

Anyway, after Dongdaemun we decided to take a subway to Myeondong and have a closer look at the shopping there.

Myeondong is one of the main shopping areas in Seoul. It’s more upmarket and classier, I think, than the Dongdaemun (late-night bargain area) and Sinchon (student area). Any place where the prices are too high for me to afford is classified as “up-market”, so there XD

One of the places we checked out was this chic homewares/giftshop place. It’s actually on at least 2 levels. The basement had a Haagen Daaz and a bookshop section, where Ray bought a volume of Bleach Manga in Korean, and where I took the photo above. There are clothing shops on the upper levels, but it gets tackier and cheaper looking the higher you get. The top floor has a foodcourt and a cinema, I think.

It also has two Lotte department store buildings, and a Lotte cineplex too. One department store is more youth-orientated (but still expensive. It’s filled with youth-orientated expensive brand-name shops with price tags on the Guess and Espirit level I suppose. They had a Muji there too.

The other more expensive Lotte department store, aimed at older adults with matching salaries, is super expensive, so Rob (another Korean friend we met in Hong Kong, he took over as “tour guide”) told us there was no point in going there. But they did have a Krispy Kreme (more on a later post) donut store there, so we bought some donuts for later

Unfortunately it was really rainy that day, and even though it was summer, the temperatures were starting to drop and it was a bit chilly for me >.

I’m short..
but at least I’m tall enough!!

Flume Ride
- Korean Graffitti

Fairytale Castle -
on the man-made island
outside

Before I went to Korea, I thought Lotte was just a confectionary and candy manufacturer. I see alot of Lotte sweets in the asian grocery stores in Adelaide.

In Korea…all the big conglomerate companies are really diversified. I even walked past a sign for ‘Hyundai (I think) supermarket’. I asked if it was just a megamart for car spare parts and Mokeun gave me a funny look. “It’s a supermarket“, he said.

Sin Kyok-ho (신격호, 辛格浩), a Korean migrant to Japan and the founder of Lotte, named it after the female protagonist, Charlotte, in The Sorrows of Young Werther, an 18th century novel by Goethe. So Lotte was actually born in Japan, in 1948. Its confectionary business (which focused on chewing gum) was hugely successful in the post-WWII market, largely in part due to its agressive marketing strategy (it even sponsored a baseball team).

It was only almost two decades later in 1967 that Sin Kyok-ho set up Lotte in Korea.

So in addition to its candy and confectionary business, Lotte Group consists of over 50 business units employing 38,000 people. It owns an amusement park, a 5-star resort hotel, supermarkets (more in a later post), an internet portal, their own lotte-branded visa card, department stores (luxury as well as a cheaper variety targeted at the younger generation. The cheaper one was still rather expensive though.), “Lotteria” (the McDonald’s of Korea, incidentally employing the same red and yellow colour scheme too), and a chain of delux movie theatres. It is involved in the financial services, heavy chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment industries. Lotte also owns the Lotte Giants baseball team in South Korea and Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.

Today, Lotte is South Korea’s eighth largest conglomerate.

Lotte’s corporate offices are located in Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing. In China, the company’s name is rendered as 楽天 (lè tīan in pinyin). In Japanese katakana, it is ロッテ. In Korean Hangul, it is 롯데. Sin Kyok-ho is 387th on the World’s Richest People list of 2005 in Forbes Magazine.

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Anyway. Lotte world is pretty fun. It is listed as the world’s largest indoor theme park in the Guinness Book of World Records

It also appeared in Full House, a Korean romantic comedy drama based on a manhwa (Korean comics).

There’s an indoor skating rink, museums, and indoor section and also an outdoor man-made island which has the more extreme rides as well as the compulsory fairy-tale castle. Everynight they have concert performances and a costume parade, and now and then they will have fireworks too I suppose. A bit like Disneyland, except more compact and probably cheaper too.

Mokeun took Ray and I there after Yoido, the Han River Cruise, and Co-ax mall.

We went later, after about 6 pm, because it was cheaper that way. It was still a bit pricey though. Entrance fees cost 21,000 won.

The rollercoaster “French Revolution” wasn’t that great…the seat guards were too high. So instead of thinking “YAY!! it’s so scary/fun/fast”, you’re thinkiing
“ARGH! Hold your head still so you don’t keep banging your head!!”. I
come out with a minor concussion.

The roller coaster was a whole chain of cars. Each car had 4 seats, 2 in front and 2 at the back. I jockeyed for the very first car, right at the front. Ray didn’t want to sit in upfront with me though. He sat in the second row just behind me, with Mokeun, I think. During the ride, I was wondering “who’s the person who keeps screaming?” then I realised it was Ray XDD

There was this little boat thing as well “Flume Ride”…you drop off a waterfall a
few metres high. Fun, but then all I was thinking was “ARGH!! Try to
avoid the water!” Ray thought it was scary. Seriously, it was only a drop of a few metres. Four at the most. How can you be scared of that?!

We went on the viking ship too. The “Conquistador” was just like a normal viking ship ride. Swings you up so the boat is 90 degrees to the ground, then freefalls down and up again 90 degrees on the other side. Again, all good fun.

Well, Ray disagreed. He refused to go on any rides after that XD

On the viking ship, he had his head down and eyes closed all the time (he was sitting right in front of me).

Half the fun is seeing Ray scared ^_____________________________^

We had dinner afer that. We tried out “Ja Jang Mein”, a Korean interpretation of some Chinese dish. I think it is more of a Beijing dish, so even though I have an idea of what the original is like, I don’t know for sure. They use the thicker ‘mein’ (in Canotnese) egg wheat noodles, then they pour a brown sauce with vegetables on top. It was a bit odd. I just had a few potstickers. I didn’t want to eat too much, I wanted to go back on the rides, and I didn’t want to feel naseous after eating. It’s all about strategy!

After that I went on the Gyro drop. Mokeun (he went on it 3 times already the last time he went to Lotte World and was sick of it)and Ray didn’t want to come with me, so I went alone >.>

It lifts a whole ring of people up, turning around slowly as it goes up. You get a really good view from up there. You’re strapped into a seat, but your legs are just dangling in the air. It goes up to a height of 70m. It may not sound like alot, but by the time you get up there, you’ll wish you could get down.

And then…it drops you. Maybe it lasted only a few seconds. But
any more and it would have been quite unbearable >__________Lotte.
The Korea Times, [The Dawn of Modern Korea] The Whole Lotte.

Right: Mokeun’s, Left: Ray’s

Leaf fish - very good camouflage!
And so cute too.

Over-stocked tank?

Viewing tank from below

Chameleon

So after Yoido and the Han River Cruise, we took the subway to the Co-ax Coex Mall. This is a rather big premium mall. They have exhibition halls too. At that time, I believe they had a car exhibition. But the posters didn’t say exacly where in the mall it was. Also, the mall is superbly big so we couldn’t just walk around till we found it.

There was this event held by the “Department of Family Services… something something”. We got free photos taken and after that we were supposed to write something to tie to the christmas tree there. The poor tree had its needles crushed from over-enthusiastic tying. I tried to tie mine on as gently as possible…

I still didn’t really get the purpose of the exercise. I guess having free photos taken and being able to write something that would be put on display will foster warm and fuzzy feelings towards the department…?

We had lunch there, as we were still hungry after that picnic with the school girls after the Han cruise. After finding the food court, Ray and I set about exploring the stalls, while Mokeun sat down for a rest. It was interesting because most of the signs were in Hangul, so I was testing out my very rudimentary hangul. In the end, Ray and I settled for a bowl of naeng myun. I was worried I didn’t order the right type, what if they gave us the most expensive dish??! In the end I resorted to pointing and gesturing (universal language~) just to make sure.

After lunch we had a bit of time to kill, so we went to the Apple shop there. Nothing really different from Apple shops in Australia or Hong Kong. I guess they are all the same.

After that, we proceeded to the Co-ax Coex Aquarium. It’s located right in the mall itself. I’ve also been a fish hobbyist so I always like going to aquariums.

There was a small temporary tropical fish exhibit at the front. We thought at first that was it, but then we went around a corner and discovered the entry into the aquarium proper.

There were a bunch of large tank displays for both freshwater and saltwater fish. They included your standard freshwater tanks as well as coral reef tanks.

Some of the tanks looked rather impressive, chock full with shiny pretty fish, all of the same species. But I have serious misgivings as to the wellbeing of the fish in those tanks. The fish looked overcrowded and slightly stressed (you can tell by the torn fins - they get it when they start to bicker among each other). The tanks that were overcrowded (in my opinion) were filled with species that are relatively common and cheap. I hope that the managers did not make the choose to have those exhibits because the costs of replacing the fish did not exceed the visual benefits of having the tank over-stocked.

Then there were themed exhibits such as “rainforest”. As you walk through it, there are waterfalls cascading, lots of over hanging trees and lowered tanks, so you can clearly see across the surface of the water as well as the fish there. The water was a bit smelly though, it really smelt of fish. Someone should clean out the filters.

The rainforest exhibit was quite large and it also had other animals too in their own tanks; reptiles such as snakes and large lizards and amphibians like frogs.

There was a kids’ area in the middle. I guess it lets the kids have a bit of a rest. Which was good for the bunch of kids that were on a class excursion when we were there. They were all Koreans, probably about 7 years old, and they attended the Seoul Canadian international school. So the Caucasian teachers were talking with them in very exagerated and emphasised English, I suppose trying in vain to get the kids to learn a bit of English. Well, I guess it works though, they could reply in heavily accented English, but they still talked among themselves in Korean. I really quite admire the teachers there. The young woman I saw still looked so enthusiastic. Those kids would have driven me insane.

Anyway, the little rest area also had tanks of “ice angels”. It’s some weird sort of pink organism; its natural environment is in the icy cold waters of the Antarctic (or possibly the Arctic). They’re really cute. They are really tiny, and they swim by flapping their “wings”, so they look like little cartoon angels. But they are pink, not white, so I would associate the colour more with a cute cartoon devil…
I’d have put up a photo except they all turned out horribly blurry >.shark egg case, also known as “mermaid’s purse” was pinned to the front of the tank and shone a light through it so you could see the baby shark wriggling inside. Then the next tank over shows another egg at a slightly later stage, the shark is beginning to eat its way out (or if it’s a bit older, the baby shark would have eaten its way out n you just see it lying at the bottom of the tank with the discarded egg case still pinned to the front). The last tank shows a bunch of newly-born sharks, swimming around in various states of energy. You can tell the younger ones are the ones swimming slowly; they look like their in a daze.

All in all, it was a bit pricey, and the exhibits weren’t all that unusual, but they were all big and there was alot of variety and that’s always impressive. So it was worth it. The entry fee was around 10,000 won (about 10 USD).